Young people are increasingly engaging in participatory culture and creative production through digital media. They can develop their identities as media creators by interacting with engaged audiences online. Popular YouTuber Nicholle337 illustrates this as she gained a following by sharing videos of herself singing and has become a mentor within the autistic community. Creating profiles, photos, videos and other media allows for self-expression and social connection with peers, and the ease of access to production tools means more people can engage in creative work. Feedback from others and gaining audiences provides motivation to improve skills and engagement.

1. Creative Production
Chapter Authors: Patricia G. Lange and Mizuko Ito
Report by: Katherine Bernard

2. Participatory Culture
In what Henry Jenkins and his colleagues have described as
“participatory culture,” budding creators can develop their
voices and identities as media creators through ongoing
interaction with engaged peers and audiences (Jenkins 1992;
Jenkins et al. 2006).

3. Participatory Culture
To illustrate the idea of Participatory Culture, we will talk about Nicholle337,
which is the username by which her fans know her, a popular Youtube sensation.
She became known for being an awkward teen who loved to sing, and has used
the clout she gained through Youtube as a path to becoming a mentor and
motivational speaker in the autistic community.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BVvNE78lyc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uud3CtpMbEA

4. The focus of this chapter is on the social processes of interest
driven genres of participation, but we also describe how kids
get involved in messing around with new media through
friendship-driven practices.

5. Creative Production in
the Digital Age
In today’s day and age, it’s
becoming more commonplace to
create profiles and personal
webpages than it was in the past.
This shows that the term “creative
work” is ever changing in
definition.
The ease in which digital work can be created has shown an
influx of media and creative work into daily life. This alters
our process for self-expression, learning and sociality.

6. Creative Production in
the Digital Age
Access to media production tools is easy. Most computers
come with stock software that allows for creation of videos,
editing photos, music and more. This changes the game
because most people have access to these types of production
software thus their capabilities are changing.

7. Everyday Media Production
Many young people are now well versed in the
media production world. They may not call
themselves producers because things like
making accounts/profiles on social networking
sites are now very common occurrences, but a
lot of them are capable of advanced forms of
media.

8. Personal Photos
Digital photography and videotaping
grow out of existing practices of self-
archiving (such as journaling,
scrapbooking, and keeping photograph
albums) and are propelled by the growth
in avenues to share these media with
friends and family.

9. Sharing Personal Media
Sharing is one of the
The capabilities of primary drives
sharing within new behind the power of
forms of social social media.
media give new
meaning to the term
social life.
Sharing photos blurs the line between
creative production and personal
communication.

10. Profiles
As teens create their profiles, and post and
link on their own profiles and their friends’
profiles, they are engaged in acts of social
communication and everyday media sharing
and “consumption” that also entail creating
their own digital media.
These observations provide a
window onto how youth
engage with profile creation as
a form of creative production
embedded in their everyday
social relations.

11. Getting Started
Tinkering with new media
production can lead to a
greater interest in the field.
Mother-daughter youtube
sensation Lola and Ashley got
started because Ashley wanted to
go to film school. It was a great
way for her to practice her craft
and a great way for her mother,
Lola, to grow closer with her
daughter.

12. Improving the Craft
Peer Evaluation: the ability
to give and get feedback
on your work
These social practices of evaluation, standard setting, and
reputation building, well established in professional art worlds,
are now being taken up by a larger swath of amateurs engaged
in digital media production and online sharing.

13. Gaining Audience
The desire for sharing,
visibility, and reputation is
a powerful driver for
creative production in the
online world.
While fellow creators provide
the feedback that improves the
craft, audiences provide the
recognition and validation of
the work that is highly
motivational.

14. Aspirational Trajectories
In most cases, young people who create
digital media are not aspiring to be
professionals or to get famous through
their creative work.
They engage in digital media production as a social activity, a fun
extracurricular hobby, or maybe even a serious lifelong one.
Young people can begin by modeling
more accessible and amateur forms of creative production.
Even if they end there, with practices that never turn toward
professionalism, they still can gain status, validation, and
reputation within specific creative communities and smaller
audiences.

15. Conclusion
All of the topics we’ve discussed
demonstrate the growing centrality of
media creation in the everyday social
communication of youth.
Whether it is everyday photography or machinima, youth are
using media they create as a way of documenting their lives and
as a means of self-expression. These cases also demonstrate the
centrality of peer-based exchange in motivating creative work
and providing a learning context.